Green Papaya in Thai Cooking

Green papaya is simply papaya picked long before it ripens. The flesh is pale, firm, crunchy and almost tasteless, which is its great quality: it soaks up the hot, sour, salty and sweet dressing of som tam while staying crisp.

Pronunciation	ma-la-gor dip
Flavour	Neutral, crisp and faintly vegetal; takes on the dressing
Used in	Som tam, sour curries, pickles, soups
Substitute	Cucumber, carrot, kohlrabi or green mango, shredded

How to shred it

Peel the papaya with a vegetable peeler, cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the white seeds. In Thailand, cooks hold the papaya in one hand and hack into it with a heavy knife, making dozens of parallel cuts, then shave off the strips. This gives rough, uneven shreds that hold the dressing well.

At home, a julienne peeler or the coarse shredding blade of a mandoline is easier and safer. Aim for long strips about 3 mm thick. Soak them in cold water for 10 minutes for extra crunch, then drain well.

The many kinds of som tam

Som tam Thai: sweeter and milder, with dried shrimp and peanuts.
Som tam pla ra (or som tam Lao): with fermented fish sauce, funkier, saltier and hotter.
Som tam poo: with salted black field crabs.
Tam sua: mixed with fresh rice noodles.
Tam ponlamai: made with mixed fruit instead of papaya.

Cooking with it

Green papaya is also cooked: in southern sour curries (gaeng som), in clear soups with pork ribs, and pickled. Cooked, it becomes soft and absorbs the broth, a little like marrow.

Buying and storing

Choose a completely green, very hard papaya with no yellow patches or soft spots, ideally 500 g to 1 kg. Whole, it keeps for about a week in the fridge. Once shredded, keep it in a bowl of cold water in the fridge and use it the same day. Pre-shredded green papaya is sold in some Asian grocers.

Cook’s tip
Make the dressing in the mortar first and taste it before the papaya goes in. Adjusting a dressing is easy; adjusting a dressed salad is not.

Recipes with Green Papaya